RATCLIFFE ON: Paying homage to Battle

Thirty-one golf balls sailed simultaneously down the 14th fairway at Farmington Country Club, each a memory of the late Bill Battle and what he meant to those assembled to celebrate his life.
Bagpipes played in his honor and people from all walks of life were there for a final salute to a man who was brilliant in so many different fields. Former governors, scholars, and businessmen spoke of his diverse talents.
But after all, this was a golf course, Battle’s home away from home, a place where he used to say he could clear out the cobwebs. Golf was more than adequately represented at the back-to-back memorial services at University Chapel, where strange bedfellows sat side-by-side in tribute, then at Farmington where they spoke so eloquently of Battle’s service to the game.

A show of respect

David Fay, executive director of the United States Golf Association, the man who runs the U.S. Open, was there, having flown from Torrey Pines in San Diego to Charlottesville, then back to California last night.
That’s the kind of respect the golfing world has for Bill Battle, former USGA president and a long-time member of its executive committee.
John Solheim, chairman and CEO of Ping Golf — once an antagonist of Battle and the USGA — was there to say farewell, as was Bill Campbell, who preceded Charlottesville’s favorite son as president of the USGA and who recruited Battle to the organization that oversees the sport in America.
Campbell, the only person to serve as both USGA president and captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, knew Battle for 50 years.
“He was a man of integrity, a man with an indefinable touch,” Campbell said. “Some people have that and most people don’t. You want that in your best friends and your leaders, especially at critical times.”

A pivotal leader

Battle’s successes have been well-documented in this newspaper since his death more than a week ago — his rescue of John F. Kennedy in the South Pacific in World War II, his critical role in helping Kennedy’s presidential campaign in the South, his ambassadorship to Australia, his career as an attorney, politician, tennis enthusiast, businessman, and leader.
We knew Battle mostly through golf as he graciously permitted his name to adorn an annual trophy presented to the top amateur golfer in Central Virginia as presented by this newspaper. As mentioned in this column last week, one of his great challenges was to settle Ping’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against the USGA.
Little did we know that Solheim would travel from Phoenix for the memorial service a week later. That spoke volumes about Battle and what he meant to golf.
“It was an interesting time,” Solheim said Wednesday. “The USGA was very difficult to talk to until Bill became president.”
In 1988, the USGA executive committee took the position that it would not permit the use of Ping Eye2 irons in its competitions because it considered the clubs to be illegal. The R&A joined in that opinion, causing Karsten Manufacturing to file a $100 million lawsuit against the USGA.
Battle summed up the whole ordeal in an interview years later:
“There’s a very special and important specification that defines the distance between the grooves on an iron’s clubface and when [Ping] went to so-called square grooves, the edge at the face of the club was sharp because it came up straight ... it wasn’t like a ‘V.’ So, the manufacturers put a small bevel right at the top of the groove, and Karsten, who at that time was by far the most precise manufacturer in the game, built the Ping Eye2 right to the maximum specification of distance between the grooves. When he beveled that, we said that it widened the groove and violated the specification. It was a technical violation.”
Karsten Solheim, John’s father, argued that the groove was measured straight up the sides. Battle said that Solheim was wrong on that, but that the USGA was also wrong in that there was no way to measure and determine a violation because it was so infinite.
Battle knew that the USGA could easily lose the suit and it could cost millions of dollars. He sought to get to know the Solheims and found them to be honorable people. Eventually, a settlement was reached only minutes before Battle’s term as USGA president expired.
“In my opinion, he was the right individual at the right time for the organization because he was able to combine his great intellect, his incredible powers of persuasion, and his quick wit,” Fay said. “Sometimes I think back on that and I wonder if Bill Battle were not there doing the frontline negotiating with Karsten Solheim ... I don’t know what would have happened because there were some people within the USGA that wanted to take it to the limit. I don’t know what the outcome would have been.”
Battle said later that the most significant item from the case was Solheim’s statement that the USGA and the R&A should be the rule-makers for the game of golf and that manufacturers shouldn’t be involved.
John Solheim pointed out Wednesday that he and his father were keenly aware that Battle and the USGA wanted what was best for golf, as did the Solheim family.
“That’s what made it different than a normal lawsuit,” John Solheim said. “We knew the USGA would make proper moves and not strange ones. I told Bill afterward the hardest part was convincing my father, especially from thousands of miles away. But we got it done for golf.”
Solheim said he and Battle were negotiating in San Diego while Karsten Solheim was attending the Florida Golf Show in Orlando with another son and two close friends, Roy Freeman (a company manager in England) and Tour player Babe Hiskey.
“If they hadn’t been together with my dad then, we wouldn’t have gotten it settled,” John Solheim said. “The combination of what Bill and I put together and managed to get to them at that time, we got it done. I also knew that the next two [USGA] presidents coming on board would have made it very difficult to get anything done.”
Campbell, 84, and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, said that golf was fortuitous that Battle was there at the time with his legal experience, people skills and that ‘indefinable’ touch that allowed him to get things done when probably no one else could.
A dry wit, which was a great aid to Battle during his term as ambassador to Australia, didn’t hurt either.
Fay recalled a meeting in which there was discussion about commissioning a painting of Campbell, adorned in a red coat, commemorating his rare honor as head of the USGA and the R&A.
“I remember Bill asking, ‘How much is this going to cost?’” Fay said. “I told him $25,000.”
Battle shot back, “Geez, we could get him stuffed for less than that.”
Campbell was thankful the executive committee didn’t heed Battle’s recommendation and that he was able to strike a golf ball in his old friend’s honor on Wednesday evening, just before the gloaming.
Somewhere, a humble Bill Battle was embarrassed about the whole shindig in his honor. But as Campbell would also note, somewhere Bill Battle was also smiling.